When she left China, Joy Zhao arrived to a disheartening conclusion: China is not as free as she had been led to believe. She is on a mission to educate others about this travesty.

Born to two college professors, Ms. Zhao belongs to the first generation of children born under the China’s one-child policy. When she was in middle school, her family witnessed the Tiananmen Square protests. But after the massacre took place, no one spoke about it—including her parents—out of fear. After finishing her undergraduate degree, Joy decided to travel to the US to earn a post-graduate degree.

In 1998, Ms. Zhao arrived in the United States. She attended a well-known university in Mid-West where she earned her MBA and MS degrees. During her post-graduate studies, Joy worked as a research assistant, spending long hours in the computer lab. One day she stumbled across a public article on the Internet by a mother who lost her son during the Tiananmen Square massacre; it was a wakeup call. Ms. Zhao came to terms with all the misinformation she learned from her schools in China. She vowed to spread awareness about the lack of freedom and human rights issues in her home country.

Currently, Ms. Zhao is a project manager at a global company. In her spare time, she volunteers to help people know about Shen Yun—a world-class performance that aims to revive the traditional Chinese culture that has been destroyed and distorted by the Chinese Communist Party. She also volunteers by providing free exercise instruction to others who are interested in learning Falun Gong (Falun Dafa), a traditional Chinese mind and body meditation.